Monday, June 13, 2011

Weekend hike to Skålsjøen

A different format this time; just wanted to share some photos from an overnighter I did some weeks ago to Skålsjø in Østmarka.

I didn't get going before 3pm so when I arrived at Skålsjøen (about a 15 km hike) the sun was setting.

Loved the reflections in the water as the sun set and the water was gently rippled by the evening breeze.

Skålsjø, looking southwards from my campsite.

Dinner was dehydrated "Lentils and rice" made from the recipe by hammock forum member "Babelfish5".
It's yummy! and its the only recipe I've come across that asks for a can of coke to be added.

The sun has dipped below the horizon and I'm lying in my hammock, feeling comfortable and warm, watching mosquitos
struggling in vain to get into my hammock to suck my blood with their precision instruments and local anaesthetic, but it was not to be.

It took some time before I fell asleep, and I had to get up during the night to pitch the tarp as the wind picked up.
I needed to adjust my underquilt a bit too. After all that though I got some quality sleep for sure. I've never slept
through the night in a hammock, but the sleep I do get is better than when I'm ground based :).

My shoes were utterly dry the next morning, a first for me. Must have been the night breeze that speeded up the
process. Love these shoes (Terroc 330), but found out that they're slightly too small for me. A larger pair is en
route and will be used on Jotunheimstien with Joe this summer.

I couldn't be bothered to backtrack the way I came to Skålsjø as the last bit was hard going through soggy ground,
so I checked my map and decided to plot a direct course for a trail about 800m west of my campsite.

Turned out to be quite time consuming to move through that dense forest and to climb over a couple of hills. I
would've been lost pretty quickly if I didn't have my GPS. In the photo above I've got just 85m left. At first I
couldn't see the familiar trail markings, and I was afraid something was amiss with my electronic map, but then
I saw the blue trail markings and smiled affectionately to my GPS (I may even have kissed it).

Love these. They're called "Torvmyrull" in norwegian. Nice to just take a break and watch them move with the wind.

The last part of my hike was on the "refugee trail" that was used during the war when Norway was occupied by
the germans. It's pretty steep at times and not designed for comfort, but still very nice. Imagine people, young and old, fit and unfit, travelling along this trail, bound for the neutral Sweden. Must have been rough.

My trip ended where it had started, at Østmarksætra, a trailhead I use a lot as a starting point for my trips in "Østmarka". I'm always amazed how energized I feel after a hike like this even though I've been hiking hard for hours each day. Small adventures can be found not far from your doorstep, that is if you're blessed with hiking terrain close to where you live like here in Oslo.

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About Me

On a quest to learn skills needed to be comfortable and safe in the outdoors, and to figure out how I function when hiking long trips alone.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life."